Bush

riginally founded as Future Primitive, Bush was started by Gavin Rossdale (ex-Midnight; vocals/guitar), Nigel Pulsford (ex-King Blank; guitar), Dave Parsons (ex-Transvision Vamp; bass) and Robin Goodridge (ex-Beautiful People; drums). Initially they were ignored locally but their luck changed when American label 'Trauma' picked them up as an answer to the recently defunct Nirvana on a competing label. Before their debut album, Sixteen Stone (1995), they played at New York's infamous CBGB's and then relocated to the US. The album sold extremely well in the US, a nation that was still lost in the grunge haze, to the point that the album made 4 on their charts with Nirvana-esq tracks like Everything Zen (a song first heard on their debut single), Comedown and Testosterone; the tracks helping the album break in the UK a year later.

The follow-up, Razorblade Suitcase (1997), got them a 1 in the US and finally got a position at home with a 4. The album after that, Deconstructed (1997), failed to capitalize fully on the growing success, making only a 36 in the US. The Science Of Things (1999) did somewhat better at 11 US/28 UK, an album that was followed by a series of singles, all of which charted in the high 40's in the UK. The band's performance at Woodstock '99, however, helped The Science of Things achieve platinum status despite its slow start.

In October 2001, now on 'Atlantic Records', the next album, Golden State, followed. While the album attempted to return to the simple, catchy sound of the band's debut, it failed to achieve the same commercial success as the previous releases. Several singles were released, most notably The People That We Love (Speed Kills), but none were mainstream successes. The album proved to be the band's least successful, selling only 380,000 copies in the US. That hit track, by the way, was used in the game Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit 2.

In January 2002, Pulsford retired after the release of Golden State to spend more time with his family. Chris Traynor filled in for him for the subsequent tour, which would turn out to be the band's last for the next eight years. Due to declining record sales and a lack of support from Atlantic Records, Bush disbanded in 2002. In 2005, the greatest hits album The Best of: 1994-1999 and the live album Zen X Four were released posthumously.

On 22 June 2010, it was announced that Bush would play their first show in eight years at the second-annual Epicenter Music Festival in Fontana, California on 25 September 2010 with Pulsford and Parsons' respective successors Chris Traynor and Corey Britz. Later that same year The Sea of Memories was released managing to peak at 18 on the Billboard Top 200. The Man on the Run album would follow in 2014 with Black and White Rainbows following in 2017.

Footnote: In Canada Bush was known as Bush-X for many years due to the name already existing by a much older '70s AOR band, a band relatively unknown, who was re-releasing their albums just as this "Bush" was arriving in the North American markets. The Canadian act successfully defended their trademark in that country but a settlement was reached that later allowed the British Bush to use the name after donating $20,000 each to the Starlight Foundation and the Canadian Music Therapy Trust Fund.